We have a building manager, an office administrator and an accountant / bookkeeper. These folks do not live on premises. Our two superintendents live on premises.

We have three senior maintenance staff and a number of porters. Maintenance personnel are on site 7 AM to 6 PM. Porters are on site 7 AM to about 9 PM. Our maintenance and porter staff personnel are all employees. We have 24x7 doormen (multiple on some shifts) on our staff and they are all employees.

Our maintenance staff performs small repairs (not requiring a license) in a resident’s apartment, e.g.: drain trap beneath a sink, sink washer replacement, shower washer replacement, door bell repairs, flushing mechanism repair, fans in the AC/heating units, window mechanism repair, etc. Of note is that the first thirty minutes of maintenance support, exclusive of parts, is free. And the staff cleans the under window AC/heating units and replaces filters each year.

The maintenance staff cleans our sidewalks and grounds, power cleans (riding machine) our garage decks, shampoos hallway carpets on each floor each month, cleans laundry rooms, picks up recyclables on each floor several times a day (no way to install a chute, among other things.

Residents will sometimes have maintenance person come to their apartment to change a light bulb.

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On site, we have a valet cleaners, a bicycle storage room, a health club, a community room, an indoor children's playground, an outdoor pool, outdoor tennis courts (with lighting), basketball court (with lighting), an outdoor children's playground. During the summer, the pool staff fills, lights and then cleans charcoal grills, located within the pool area, for the residents.

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All below are contracted:

Our security (contracted firm), 24x7, staff is in our upper garage (we don’t have access control), and our lower garage (again no access control) as the lower garage is also employed for visitors. Even if we had access control, we would have a security staff presence.

We have a rear lobby and the security staff watches our CCTV system and assists with food and truck deliveries and contractor access control, e.g.: no out of hours deliveries, no contractors except those pre-registered with the office (e.g.: insurance and credentials). Contractors, except cable TV and telephone are restricted to Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM; and the rule is enforced as every contractor has a badge issued by our security staff. Truck deliveries have the same restrictions except deliveries are permitted Saturday, 9 AM to 1 PM. The security staff does a late evening sweep of the floors to check for hazards, trash, etc. Security also walks the garage areas looking for autos with lights on, flats, oil leaks, fuel leaks, etc. Oh, contractors are not permitted access the day before certain religious holidays, e.g.: Christmas, Rosh Shoshanna, etc. And yes, the restrictions are enforced.

We have a house counsel (retainer) for most legal affairs, e.g.: closings, letters, town notices, notice to vendors/contractors, etc. We have an outside counsel for major items, e.g.: any litigation (rare, but necessary), and we hire “specialist” counsels as needed, e.g.: tax law, labor, etc.

We have an engineering firm that handles our every other year capital improvement / replacement AICPA redquired schedule for our annual report. The firm also assists with RFP’s and performs the quality assurance when we have major work in progress, e.g.: parking deck repairs, roof replacement, window replacement, recreation deck overhaul, etc.

We have a contracted elevator consulting firm that checks the safety and maintenance quality of our elevator system. This firm monitors our elevator repair service firm’s work. The consulting firm wrote the RFP for our major overhaul several years ago and assisted in the entire process.

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We have renewable contracts with:
• a quality (and large) public accounting firm,
• an HVAC / boiler / mechanical engineering firm,
• an outside landscaping firm and an inside landscaping firm, e.g.; lobby, and holiday decorations, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas,
• a snow removal firm, if we need assistance, e.g.: heavy snow,
• a fire and safety system firm,
• a pool service and staffing firm,
• a boiler water treatment firm,
• a generator service firm and a generator fuel delivery firm,
• a laundry room firm (21 floors, with a laundry room on each: two washers, three dryers),
• an AC firm for the standalone AC units that we have,
• an elevator maintenance firm,
• a LAN and PC support firm.

We hire and contract, as needed, with a plumbing firm, a painting firm, a carpentry firm, an outside electrical firm, a paving firm for spot repairs and striping, a tennis court maintenance and striping firm, an environmental firm (filing with the state), a marble maintenance firm, a brass maintenance firm, a pest control firm (free to any resident, but no real problems), a compactor maintenance firm, a secure paper and files shredding and disposal firm, etc.

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Without fear of contradiction, we are the lowest cost coop in the area and perhaps NJ region, considering all costs (maintenance with taxes, parking, assessment), and we are considered an upscale “luxury” residence. Our annual cost for a large two bedroom with terrace is about $13,700 or about $1,142 a month. As all residents have gas stoves/ovens, the cooking gas is “baked” into the monthly maintenance because we do not have gas sub-metering.

Oh, did I mention that the HVAC and the heating system are a central plant and the costs are included (electrical or gas, as appropriate by season) in the monthly maintenance displayed above (no PTAC units). Thus the resident only need pay to operate the electric fans in the under window units. As with other coops, share count is employed to allocate all costs, taxes, assessment, etc. So on top of the monthly maintenance, a typical resident personally pays another $50 a month for in-unit electrical service for lighting and for AC/heating fan operation– depending on season.

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But why self managed? The board, a number of years ago, deduced that coop or condos seek to acquire the least expensive management contracts. With the low cost contracts there is typically a novice building manager. Please accept my apology if this offends anyone, but many management firms provide what the coop/condo wishes to pay. In addition, with the high turnover in board members in many coops, the life of a management firm is typically short lived as each new board appears to have a penchant to replace the management firm as the first agenda item in identifying any ills.

By being self managed, we control our destiny; we set standards; we have continuity; we reward for performance.

And, our staff, management office (three), superintendents (two), doormen, maintenance, porters, etc, have been with us for a considerable period of time.

Our management office is open from 9 AM to Noon and 2 PM to 5 PM. The exceptions are certain half days before major holidays. Residents may only conduct business during the posted hours.

Likewise, our contracted firms have been with us for a long time.

And, we have many safety checks. For instance, the president is not authorized to sign checks and the president does not sign contracts – the secretary signs contracts. Two board members must sign every check. The management staff is not permitted to sign any checks.

We avoid all credit cards use for bills, with only minor exceptions, e.g.: stationery supply firm. Our staff is not permitted to partake of restaurant meals, sporting events, etc. sponsored by any vendor or firm with which we do business or may do business. Some firms will sometimes provide pastries, coffee rolls, etc. for the office staff. As a matter of fact, one vendor bakes his own pies and brings to the staff once or twice a year.

We pay all bills twice a month. The “big” run is at the beginning of the month for all bills received by the 25th of the preceding month. Then, we do a late month run (minor) for some stragglers or must pay transactions.

We have a seven figure line of credit which we may employ in advance of assessment revenue collections, but always repay by year end. Most often we have $500,000 to $1,000,000 in capital reserves.

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Of the 500 units (studio, one, two and three bedroom), only about a dozen are still owned by the sponsor (protected seniors) as we negotiated with the sponsor to divest all non-protected units.

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